A Rose By Another Name
by Chibi-Kari
Summary: That was the mistake they had made, just because her family was dead didn't mean she was forgotten. R&R.
1. Chapter 1

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Chibi-Kari: I'm just trying out a genre. This is just a prologue if I chose to continue with it. I've been watching Gunslinger Girl since the beginning and I own all the manga so if something is wrong will you please inform me so I can check on it.

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**A Rose By Another Name**

**Prologue

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He let the rain splatter down on his head. It was one of those moments where life couldn't get any worse. Standing in the park midday. It was his way of mourning her loss. It had been one year since he had seen her. His best friend.

"Master Phillipo. Please, you must return. Your mother and father wouldn't like you staying out here. It's not safe."

The young boy laughed to himself. His brown hair matted to his face, covering his light blue eyes, "Nothing's safe. Don't patronize me. I know who my father is and what he works for."

"Mr. Pirazzi, your father, won't be happy if you don't come back. If you catch cold it will be my head." The man begged. He knew he couldn't sway the young man, but dealing with the wrath of his boss would be even worse.

"Yeah I wouldn't want to be caught by the Brigate Rosse." The boy laughed to himself. It was a cruel joke. They were the people that killed his best friend and her whole family all because his father was funneling money into the Padania. Well everyone said she was dead, but he didn't believe it. Her body was never found. If she had been alive, God they would have done anything for her. She was practically family. He ran a hand through his matted hair, "Let's go." He sighed as he walked towards the tall man and they made there way into a limo.

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"Giuseppe, where is Henrietta?" A tall blonde man asked as he walked down the corridor.

"Jean. She's out shopping with Elenora. Didn't you check the records?" A tall pale man with dark hair answered.

"I know, I just didn't think that you would let her go off with an employee of section one." Jean answered raising an eyebrow in disapproval.

"Jean, it's nothing like that." Giuseppe answered waving his hand off handly. "Elenora said something about me having horrible fashion sense. She's bringing her shopping."

"I don't feel comfortable letting one of the machines walk around like that. What if we needed her?"

"Jean, don't be ridiculous. She's fine and it's only for an hour. Henrietta could do with some new clothes. And it's true everything I pick out is all the same."

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**TBC

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**Chibi-Kari: Please tell me what you thought of the beginning. Thanks.

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	2. Normalcy

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Chibi-Kari: I know it's been forever since I've updated. I'm quite sorry about that. I've gotten in a rut with school and where I want to go with my life. I'm graduating University in April and I have no idea what I'm going to do. Well I don't own Gunslinger Girl; if I did I wouldn't have a problem knowing what I was going to do. The next chapter is going to be where the two chapters really connect.

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**A Rose By Another Name**

**Chapter 2-Normalcy

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Today was the best day of her life. Despite the fall of rain all around her. The cloudy sky couldn't ruin her day. She was normal. A normal girl. Just for today.

"Henrietta, be careful! You don't want your clothes to get wet!" A woman called out to the young brunette that was dancing her way towards the door.

She stopped abruptly. Standing on one foot, leaning close to the door, "Oh. Sorry, Elenora." Slowly she placed her other foot back on the ground, evening her balance. Looking down sadly, her brown hair rested slightly over her shoulders. It lightly grazed her face, hiding it from the world around her.

The older brunette tilted her head back and let a joyful laugh escape her body, "Henrietta, don't look so sad. I'm not angry with you."

Henrietta's head snapped up, "But…I almost got my new clothes wet." She stared at the woman in front of her. Wide-eyed. For a moment Henrietta thought that Elenora had gone crazy. "I…I don't understand." She admitted softly.

The woman behind her sighed as she moved forward and placed a hand on the back of the child in front of her. Sometimes it was hard. So hard to remember that she wasn't a normal girl. "Just…Just don't worry about it, Henrietta."

The girl in front of her let an unguarded smile, "Okay!"

"Let's go. I see another little shop across the street." Elenora responded taking the umbrella in her hand. All she got in response was a small curt nod. Something Henrietta would give to Giuseppe after an order. Elenora sighed as they walked across the street. It seemed impossible that Henrietta is or ever could have been a real girl. They were just so…so conditioned. It hurt to think that these children would not get the chance to grow up, to go to school dances, to date. They couldn't do anything that helped shape adolescents into adults and it almost killed Elenora to think of this.

"Are you alright?" Henrietta asked softly as she grabbed Elenora's hand. This had been happening all day. Elenora assumed it was some distant memory of Henrietta going out with her mother. It was subconscious, almost like when she responded about making dinner, the first time they met. It was moments like this that gave Elenora hope. There was a little girl in there, with a past and a future, no matter how limited. She smiled down at the girl as they proceeded to walk out into the rain.

Who was this little girl? Who was her mother? Elenora truly wanted to know. Why? She wasn't sure, but that would _not_ stop her from finding out.

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"What are you saying? The less conditioning the longer the girls will live?" Shock was written across Hilshire's face as he glanced over at Giuseppe. So Rico would be the first to go of the three. Hilshire felt relief wash over him. Triela and Henrietta were by far his favorite. Triela because she was his fratello and placing why he liked Henrietta was something that just could not be done.

Lorenzo glanced over at Dr. Bianchi as sign for him to continue. "It seems, after several tests on Angelica, that it was the conditioning that caused the deterioration of her body."

"I thought the deterioration from the conditioning was only to the extent of her mind." Jean said aloud. "That is what we were led to believe, at least."

Dr. Bianchi sighed as he brought his large hand up to rub his temples, "The deterioration of the mind caused a trigger. The mind reverted to a sense where it was simply controlling the body so that it would survive. The mind then sent the signal for the antibodies to start attacking the cybernetic implants. It's almost the same as when doctors didn't understand transplants and in turn something that was initially there to save a life ended up killing the person."

"So you're saying that their bodies will start attacking themselves?" Giuseppe asked as he looked hard at his brother. This was not what he signed up to do. He didn't sign up to watch a little girl die, a little girl he had come to believe in his heart was his sister.

"In layman's terms…yes." Dr. Bianchi turned to leave. This wasn't what he ever wanted to say to these men. He stopped short before the door, "We're working on a cure for this. If we can just allow one of these children to have a longer life-" He couldn't finish as he shook his head and walked out of the room.

"So should we lessen the conditioning?" Hilshire asked as he looked across the room.

"If you lessen the conditioning anymore, you won't be able to control her…or her memories." Jean said as he gestured towards Hilshire.

"So we're stuck between a rock and a hard place?" Hilshire laughed lightly to himself. "This is wonderful."

"These cyborgs will be replaced when they are no longer in fighting condition, you all knew that." Lorenzo stated from behind his desk.

"Yes, but now it's become a race against time." Giuseppe stood from his chair and walked out of the room. Henrietta didn't have much time anymore and what were they doing? Going on a mission tonight.

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**Chibi-Kari: I hope you all like the plot I'm setting up!

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	3. Abnormality

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Chibi-Kari:** Sorry for the wait everyone. But I lost my manga sometime during my move from my apartment two years ago. So now that they have started releasing again, I was able to write again. I'll keep this intro short. I don't own, although I wish I could work for Yu Aida.

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**A Rose By Another Name**

**Chapter 2-Abnormality

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The rain poured down from the night sky. Giuseppe stood and let the rain fall down his face. The mission was a failure. Not because of anything except Henrietta. How it happened, Giuseppe still didn't know. They had gotten away and they took Henrietta. It was a moment of confusion. Now he wished more than those few hours ago, that he hadn't gone on the mission.

"What-what happened?" Rico echoed Giuseppe's thoughts as they all stood in front of the building trying to decide the next step.

Jean's heavy footsteps pounded as he fell in the makeshift like, next to his brother. "This is because you didn't condition her enough. I knew something like this was going to happen-"

Jean stopped speaking as Giuseppe rounded on him quickly, "**Stop.** **Just**-just stop." His hand clattered uselessly at his side. It was like loosing his sister all over again. Only this time it was worse. Henrietta had started off as a replacement for his sister, but lately she had become more of a daughter to him. He felt like he raised her. Cared for her. Bought her things. Reprimanded when needed. And in seconds, mere seconds she was gone. There was shouting and fighting, the normal sounds. Then suddenly everything had changed.

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**Flashback – Two Hours Ago

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Henrietta looked up at Giuseppe as they rode his car towards their next mission. Over taking a Padania stronghold wouldn't be easy. It was reported that his man was one of the biggest players in the financial status of Padania.

'Finally, one step closer to getting one more terrorist group.' Giuseppe thought as he glanced at the young girl who hadn't taken her eyes off of him for the last five minutes. "Do you need something, Henrietta?"

The girl immediately looked down and locked her eyes on her folded hands sitting in the center of her lap. Giuseppe sighed as he watched the girl do this. He should have known that she was going to do that. He should have spoken softer and not been so abrupt. He knew her for almost a year now. He berated himself for not watching himself. "ou know you can tell me anything, Henrietta."

The young girl sighed as she looked up at him again, "I was just…umm…well…wanting to…never mind."

Giuseppe chuckled lightly, "Wondering what, Henrietta?"

"Well…what you though of my new dress." Henrietta promptly blushed and looked back at her hands.

Giuseppe had noticed she was wearing a new dress, one that he was sure that Elenora had chosen. It was simple; the blue short sleeved dress was cut simply but had an elegant look to it. Giuseppe shook his head knowing that he could have never picked out something like it, even if it was help in front of him and had a free price tag on it. "It looks lovely, Henrietta. I think Elenora should do your shopping from now on. What do you think of that?"

Giuseppe was mildly surprised by how fast her face started to glow, "Oh could she? I'd love to go out with her again. She picks out the loveliest clothes!" Her eyes widened suddenly, "Not to say that your dresses weren't lovely. I love them all!"

He chuckled full out as he looked back on to the road, his black hair bouncing as he laughed, "Don't worry. I know you love everything I get you."

The car rumbled slightly has he let off the clutch and turned off the car. They were 100 feet from the target. A large white house with vineyards attached to it. It was the family's country house. They had another smaller house inside the town. Giuseppe had tired to keep her attention focused on him as they had driven through the town. This was the very same town she was attacked in. The same town her family was brutally murdered in. He hoped she wouldn't remember anything and right now it seemed that she didn't.

It was an hour later that he was walking down the battered hallways. He could see what used to be ornate paintings bloodstained and torn through with bullet holes. The constant serenade of gunshots didn't ease him, but the moment of silence that came next made him uneasy.

'Henrietta just went in that room, why aren't their gunshots?' He asked himself as he saw Triela and Rico round the corner. They could feel it too; something was wrong. He picked up his pace, his feet falling firmly on the now silent path toward the room. Something was wrong.

He skidded to a halt behind Triela, as she put up her gun towards a boy in the middle of the room. He vaguely glanced over as he turned his attention back to Henrietta. His eyes were wide as his brown hair hung limply in his face. The cock of Triela's gun was almost as loud as the sound Henrietta made when she turned towards Triela and fired a shot removing the gun from the older girl's hand.

"Stop." It was simple. She commanded the other two cyborgs with a simple word. The boy behind her had moved closer to her and with one glance towards the newcomers simply grasped her hand and ran towards the backdoor. Rico was the first to move, running quickly after them, but it wasn't quickly enough as she rebounded into the wall opposite of the doorway. The house in rubble from where they had set a bomb off after them. Giuseppe couldn't think or move at the moment he was stunned. Nothing made sense, none of it. It baffled him how he got outside, or even how he got home that night.

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**TBC

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**Chibi-Kari: **Thank you all for reading again. I'm so sorry for how long it's taken for me to update. But now that they have started releasing the manga again, it has gotten easier for me. This chapter is a little longer than the first two. The next chapters should be even longer. This is where the story truly begins. Read and Review!

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